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KEPORT 



OV THE 



COMMITTEE OF THE SENATE 



OF 

MASSACHUSETTS; 

COMPRISINO 

The President's Message of the 1st of June ; — The Report of t 

Committee of Foreign Relations ; — The Act Declaring 

War ;— The Proclamation of the President, 

announcing that event ;— . * -''^^ 

* •'■• *». 

AND THE 

ADDRESS OP THE SENATE TO THB PEOPLE OI^tHIS 
COMMONWEALTH. 

June 26th, 1812.— Order«d.to be printed. * W 







»• 



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BOSTOJV: 




./IdamSi Rhoades-) 55* Co, 


Printers 


1812. 


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Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 



The committee of the Senate who were appointed to 
prepare and report an address to their constituents, have 
attended that service, and report the address which ac- 
companies this report ; and they ask leave to recom- 
mend, that the message of the President to both Houses 
of Congress of the 1st June instant, the report or man- 
ifesto of both Houses which preceded the declaration 
of war, the act by which war was declared to exist 
between the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, and the United 
States of America and their territories, and the pro- 
clamation of the President of the United States of the 
19th June instant, accompany said address, and be con- 
sidered as part thereof. 

By order of the Committee. 

In Senate, June '26th, 1812. 
Read and accepted, and thereupon ordered that the 
Clerk of the Senate be directed to procure ten thousand 
copies of the same to be printed for the use of the 
members of the Senate and of their constituents. 

SAMUEL DANA, President, 



IMPORTANT 

STATE PAPERS 



DECLARATION OF WAR. 



WASHINGTON, JUNE 18, 4 o'clock, P. M. 

THE injunction of secresy was about an hour ago removed 
ft-om the following Message, Report, and Act. 

MESSAGE. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Uni- 
ted States. 

I communicate to Congress certain documents, being 
a continuation of those heretofore laid before them, on 
the subject of our affairs with Great Britain. 

Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of 
the war in which G. Britain is engaged, and omitting 
unrepaired wrongs of inferior magnitude, the conduct 
of her government presents a series of acts hostile to the 
United States as an independent and neutral nation. 

British cruisers have been in the continued practice of 
violating the American flag on the great highway of na- 
tions, and of seizing and ctu-rying off persons sailing un- 
der it ; not in the exercise of a belligerent right found- 
ed on the law of nations, against an enemy, but of a 
municipal prerogative over British subjects. British 
jurisdiction is thus extended to neutral vessels in a sit- 
uation where no laws can operate but the law of nations, 
and the laws of the country to which the vessels be- 
long : and a self redress is assumed, which if British 
subjects were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, 
is that substitution oi foi ce for a resort to the respon- 
sible sovereign, which falls within the definition of war. 
Could the seizure of British subjects, in such cases, be 

A 







regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, 
the acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article 
of captured property to be adjudged, without a regular 
investigation before a competent tribunal, would impe- 
riously demand the fairest trial, where the sacred rights 
of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial, these 
rights are subjected to the will of every petty com- 
mander. 

The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British 
subjects alone, that under the pretext of searching for 
these, thousands of American citizens, under the safe- 
guard of public law, and of their national flag, have been 
torn from their country and from every thing dear to 
them ; have been dragged on board ships of war of a 
foreign nation, and exposed, under the severities of 
their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and 
deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their 
oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of 
taking away those of their own brethren. 

Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain 
would be so prompt to avenge if committed against 
herself, the U. States have in vain exhausted remon- 
strances and expostulations. And that no proof might 
be wanting of their conciliatory dispositions, and no 
pretext left for a continuance of the practice, the Brit- 
ish government was formally assured of the readiness 
of the U. States to enter into arrangements, such as 
could not be rejected, if the recovery of British subjects 
were the real and the sole object. The communication 
passed without effect. 

British cruisers have been in the practice also of viola- 
ling the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover 
over and harass our entering and departing commerce. 
To the most insulting pretensions they have added the 
most lawless proceedings in our very harbours ; and have 
wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of 
our territorial jurisdiction. — The principles and rule« 
enforced by that nation, when a neutral nation, against 
armed vessels of belligerents hovering near her coasts, 
and disturbing her commerce, are well known. When 
called on, nevertheless, by the U. States to punish thf , 
crreater offences committed by her own vessels, her 



government has bestowed on their commanders addi^ 
tional marks of honour and confidence. 

Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an 
adequate force, and sometimes without the practicabiHty 
of applying one, our commerce has been plundered in 
every sea ; the great staples of our country have been 
cut off from their legitimate markets ; and a destructive 
blow aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests. 
In aggravation of these predatory measures, they have 
been considered as in force from the diites of their noti- 
fication ; a retrospective effect being thus added, as has 
been done in other important cases, to the unlawfulness 
of the course pursued. And to render the outrage the 
more signal, these mock blockades have been reiterated 
and enforced in the face of official communications 
from the British government, declaring, as the true 
definition of a legal blockade, " that particular ports 
must be actually invested, and previous warning given 
to vessels bound to them, not to enter." 

Not content with these occasional expedients for lay- 
ing waste our neutral trade, the cabinet of Great Brit- 
ain resorted, at length, to the sweeping system of block- 
ades, under the name of orders in council, which has 
been moulded and managed, as might best suit its po- 
litical views, its commercial jealousies, or the avidity of 
British cruisers. 

To our remonstrances against the complicated and 
transcendent injustice of this innovation, the first reply 
was that the orders were reluctantly adopted by Great 
Britain as a necessary retaliation on decrees of her ene^ 
my proclaiming a general blockade of the British isles, 
at a time when the naval force of that enemy dared not 
to issue from his own ports. She was reminded with- 
out eftect, that her own prior blockades, unsupported 
by an adequate naval force actually applied and con. 
tinued, were a bar to this plea : that executed edicts 
against millions of our property could not be retaliation 
on edicts confessedly impossible to be executed ; that 
retahation, to be just, should fall on the party setting 
the guilty example, not on an innocent party which was 
not even chargeable with an acquiescence in it. 



When deprived of this flimsy veil for a prohibition 
of our trade with her enemy, by the repeal of his pro- 
hibition of our trade with G. Britain, her cabinet, in- 
stead of a corresponding repeal or a practical discon- 
tinuance of its orders, formally avowed a determination 
to persist in them against the United States, until the 
markets of her enemy should be laid open to British 
products ; thus asserting an obligation on a neutral 
power to require one belligerent to encourage, by its 
internal regulations, the trade of another belligerent ; 
contradicting her own practice towards all nations in 
peace as well as in war ; and betraying the insincerity 
of those professions which inculcated a belief that, hav- 
ing resorted to her orders with regret, she was anxious 
to find an occasion for putting an end to them. 

Abandoning still more all respect for the neutral 
rights of the U. States, and for its own consistency, the 
British government now demands, as prerequisites to a 
repeal of its orders, as they relate to the United States, 
that a formality should be observed in the repeal of the 
French decrees nowise necessary to their termination, 
nor exemplified by British usage ; and that the French 
repeal, besides including that portion of the decrees 
which operates within a territorial jurisdiction as well as 
that which operates on the high seas against the com- 
merce of the United States, should not be a single spe- 
cial repeal in relation to the U. States, but should be 
extended to whatever other neutral nations unconnect- 
ed with them may be affected by those decrees. 

And as an additional insult, they are called on for a 
formal disavowal of conditions and pretensions advanc- 
ed by the French government, for which the United 
States are so far from having made themselves responsi^ 
ble, that, in official explanations, which have been pub- 
lished to the world, and in a correspondence of the 
American minister at London with the British minister 
for Foreign Affairs, such a responsibility was explicitly 
and emphatically disclaimed. 

It has become indeed sufficiently certain that the 
i^ommerce of the United Slates is to be sacrificed, not 
as interfering with the belligerent rights of Great Brit- 



ain, not as supplying the wants of her enemies, which 
she herself su[)plies ; but as interfering with the mo- 
nopoly which she covets for her own commerce and 
navigation. She carries on a w^ar against the lawful 
commerce of a friend, that she may the better carry on 
a commerce with an enemy, a commerce polluted by 
the forgeries and perjuries which are for the most part 
the only passports by which it can succeed. 

Anxious to make every experiment short of the last 
resort of injured nations, the United States have wiih-, 
held from Great-Britain, under successive modificationSj, 
the benefits of a free intercourse with their market, the 
loss of which could not but outweigh the profits accru- 
ing from her restrictions of our commerce with other 
nations. And to entitle these experiments to the more 
favourable consideration, they were so framed as to ena- 
ble her to place her adversary under the exclusive ope- 
ration of them. To these appeals her government has 
been equally inflexible, as if willing to make sacrifices 
of every sort, rather than yield to the claims of justice 
or renounce the errors of a false pride. Nay, so far 
were the attempts carried to overcome the attachment 
of the British cabinet, to its unjust edicts, that it re- 
ceived every encouragement within the competency of 
the executive branch of our government, to expect 
that a repeal of them would be followed by a war be- 
tween the United States and France, unless the French 
edicts should also be repealed. Even this communica- 
tion, although silencing for ever the plea of a disposi- 
tion in the United States to acquiesce in those edicts, 
originally the sole plea for them, received no attention. 

If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the 
British government against a repeal of its orders, it 
might be found in the correspondence of the Minister 
Plenipotentiary of the United States at London, and 
the British Secretarv for Foreis:n Affairs in 1810, on 
the question whether the blockade of May 1806 was 
considered as in force or as not in force. It had been as- 
certained that the French government, which urged this 
blockade as the ground of its Berlin decree, was willing, 
in the event of its removal, to repeal that decree :, which 



10 

bein^ followed by alternate repeals of the other oftensive 
edicts, might abolish the whole system on both sides. 
This inviting opportunity for accomplishing an object so 
important to the United States, and professed so often 
to be the desire of both the belligerents, was made 
knovvn to the British government. As that government 
admits that an actual application of an adequate force is 
necessary to the existence of a legal blockade, and it 
was notorious, that if such a force had ever been applied, 
its long discontinuance had annulled the blockade in 
question, there could be no sufficient objection on the 
part of Great Britain to a formal revocation of it ; and 
no imaginable objection to a declaration of the fact that 
the blockade did not exist. The declaration would 
have been consistent with her avowed principles of 
blockade, and would have enabled the U. S. to demand 
from France the pledged repeal of her decrees ; either 
with success, in which case the way would have been 
opened for a general repeal of the belligerent edicts ; or 
without success, in which case the U. States would have 
been justified in turning their measures exclusively 
against France. The British government would, how- 
ever, neither rescind the blockade nor declare its non- 
existence ; nor permit its non-existence to be inferred 
and affirmed by the American Plenipotentiary. — On the 
contrary by representing the blockade to be comprehen- » 
ded in the orders in council, the United States were com- 
pelled so to regard it in their subsequent proceedings. 

There was a period when a favourable change in the 
policy of the British cabinet was justly considered as es- 
tablished. The Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britanic 
Majesty here proposed an adjustment of the differences 
more immediately endangering the harmony of the two 
countries. The proposition was accepted with a promp- 
titude and cordiality corresponding with the invariable 
professions of this government. A foundation appeared 
to be laid for a sincere and lasting reconciliation. The 
prospect, however, quickly vanished. The whole pro- 
ceeding was disavowed by the British government 
without any explanation which could at that time re- 
press the belief, that the disavowal proceeded from a 



11 

spirit of hostility to the commercial rights and prosperi- 
ty of the United States. And it has since come into 
proof, that at the very moment when the public Minis- 
ter was holding the language of friendship,and inspiring 
confidence in the sincerity of the negotiation with which 
he was charged, a secret agent of his government was 
employed in intrigues, having for iheir object a sub- 
version of our government and a dismemberment of our 
happy Union. 

In reviewing the conduct of GreatBritain towards the 
United States, our attention is necessarily drawn to the 
warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our ex- 
tensive frontiers ; a warfare which is known to spare 
neither age nor sex, and to be distinguished by features 
peculiarly shocking to humanity. It is difficult to ac- 
count for the activity and combinations which have for 
some time been developing themselvesamong the tribes 
in constant intercourse with British traders and garri- 
sons, without connecting their hostility with that influ- 
ence ; and without recollecting the authenticated ex- 
amples of such interpositions heretofore furnished by 
the officers and agents of that government. 

Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which 
have been heaped on our country ; and such the crisis 
which its unexampled forbearance and conciliatory 
efforts have not been able to avert. It might at least 
have been expected, that an enlightened nation, if less 
urged by moral obligations, or invited by friendly dis- 
positions on the part of the U. S. would have Ibund in 
its true interests alone a sufficient motive to respect 
their rights and their tranquillity on the high seas ; that 
an enlarged policy would have favoured that free and 
general circulation of commerce, in which the British 
nation is at all times interested, and which in times of 
war is the best alleviation of its calamities to herself, as 
well as to other beUigerents ; and more especially that 
the British Cabinet would not, for the sake of a precari- 
ous and surreptitious intercourse with hostile markets, 
have persevered in a course of measures which necessa- 
rily put at hazard the invaluable market of a great and 
growing country, disposed to cultivate the mutual ad- 
vantages ©f an active commerce. 



12 

Other councils have prevailed. Our moderation and 
conciliation, have had no other eflfect than to encourage 
perseverance, and to enlarge pretensions. We behold 
our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of lawless 
violence committed on the great common and highway 
of nations, even within sight of the country which owes 
them protection. We behold our vessels freighted with 
the products of our soil and industry, or returning with 
the honest proceeds of them, wrested from their lawful; 
destinations, confiscated by prize courts no longer the 
the organs of public law, but the instruments of arbitrary 
edicts ; and their unfortunate crews dispersed and lost, 
or forced or inveigled in British ports into British fleets : 
whilst arguments are employed, in support of these 
aggressions, which have no foundation but in a principle 
equally supporting a claim to regulate our external com- 
merce in all cases whatsoever. 

We behold, in fine, on the side of G. Britain, a state 
of war against the United States ; and on the side of the 
United States a state of peace towards Great Britain. 

Whether the United States shall continue passive un- 
der these progressive usurpations, and these accumula- 
ting wrongs ; or, opposing force to force in defence of 
their natural rights, shall commit a just cause into the 
hands of the Almighty Disposer of events, avoiding all 
connections which might entangle it in the contests or 
views of other powers, and preserving a constant readi- 
ness to concur in an honorable re-establishment of peace 
and friendship, is a solemn question, which the consti- 
tution wisely confides to the Legislative Department of 
the government : In recommending it to their early de- 
liberation, I am happy in the assurance that the decision 
will be worthy the enlightened and patriotic councils of 
a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation. 

Having presented this view of the relations of the Uni- 
ted Slates with Great Britain and of the solemn alterna- 
tive growing out of them, I proceed to remark that the 
communication last made to Congress on the subject of 
our relations with France will have shown that since the 
revocation of her decrees as they violated the neutral 
rights of the U. States, her government has authorised 



43 

illegal capturesjby its privateers and public ships,and that 
other outrages have been practised on our vessels and 
our citizens. It will have been seen also, that no indem- 
nity had been provided, or satisfactory pledge for the 
extensive spoliations committed under the violent and 
retrospective orders of the French government against 
the property of our citizens seized within the jurisdic- 
tion of France. 

I abstain at this time from recommending to the con- 
sideration of Congress definitive measures with respect 
to that nation, in the expectation, that the result of un- 
closed discussions between our Minister Plenipotentiary 
at Paris and the French government will speedily enable 
Congress to decide, with greater advantage on the 
course due to the rights, the interests, and the honour 
of our country. JAMES MADISON^ 

Washington^ June 1, 1812. 



REPORT. 

The Committee on Foreign Relations^ to whom zvas re- 
ferred the Message of the President of the United 
States of the \st of June ^ 1812, 

EEPCR 1 — 

'I'HAT alter the experience which the United slates have had 
of the threat injustice of the British governu.ent towards them, ex- 
emplified by so many acts of violence and oppression, it will be 
more difficult to justify to the impartial world their patient forbear- 
ance, than the measures to wliich it has become necessary to resort, 
to ave!ts.',e the wrongs, and vindicate the rights and honor of the 
nation Ynnr committee are happy to observe, on a dispassionate 
review oi the conduct of the United States, that they see in it no- 
cause lor ctn-urt. 
1^ If a long forbearance under injuries ought ever to be considered- 
a virtue in any n lion, it is one which peculiarly becomes the 
United States. No people « vtr had stronger motives to cherish 
peace ; none have ever cherished it with greater sincerity and zeal. 
But the period has now arrived, when the United States must 
support their character and station among the nations of the earth, 
or submit to tiie most shameful degradation. Forbearance has 
ceased to be a virtue. War on the one side, and peace on the other, 
is a situation as ruinous as it is disgraceful. The mad ambition, 
jv the lust of power, and commercial avarice of Great Britain, arroga- 
K'ting to herself the complete dominion of the Ocean, and exercisiog 

P B 



14 

over it an unbounded and lawless tyranny, have left to neutral na- 
tions an alternative only, between the base surrender of their rights, 
and a manly vindication of them. Happily for the United States, 
their destiny, under the aid of Heaven, is in their own hands. The 
crisis is formidable only by their love of peace. As soon as it be- 
comes a duty to relinquish that situation, danger disappears. They 
have suffered no wrongs, they have received no insults, however 
great, for which they cannot obtain redress. 

■ More than seven years have elapsed, since the commencement 
of this system of hostile aggression, by the British government, on 
the rights and interests of the U. States. The manner of its com- 
mencement was not less hostile, than the spirit with wi:ici) it has 
been prosecuted. Tie U. States have invariably done every thing 
\n their pov/er 'o preserve the relations of frien(!s:,ir> with Great 
Britain. Of this disposition they gave a distinguisi cd proof, at the 
moment when they were made the victims of an opposite policy. 
The wrongs of the last war had not been foiii^ouen at the commeiice- 
jnent of the present one. They warned us of dangers, against 
which it was sought to provide. As early as the year 1804, the 
Minister of the U. States at London was instructed, to invite the 
British government to enter into a negociation on all the points on 
which a collision might arise between the two countries, in the 
course of the war, and to propose to it an arrangement of their 
claims on fair and reasonable conditions. The invitation was ac- 
cepted. A negociation had commenced and was depending, and 
nothing had occurred to excite a doubt that it would not terminate to 
the satisfaction of both the parties. It was at this time, and under 
these circumstances, that an attack was made, by surprise, on an 
important branch of the American commerce, which affected every 
part of the United States, and involved many of their citizens in 
ruin. 

The commerce on which this attack was so unexpectedly made, 
was between the United States and the colonies of France, Spain, 
and other enemies of Great Britain. A commerce just in itself ; 
sanctioned by the example of G. Britain in regard to the trade 
with her own colonies ; sanctioned by a solemn act between the 
two governments in the last war ; and sanctioned by the practice 
of the British governnaent in the present war, more than two years 
having then elapsed, without any interference with it. 

The injustice of this attack could only be equalled by the absurd- 
ity of the pretext alleged for it. It was pretended by the British 
government, that in case of war, her eiiemy had no right to modify 
its colonial regulations, so as to mitigate the calamities of war to the 
inhabitants of its colonies. This pretension, peculiar to Great 
Britain, is utterly incompatible with the rights of sovereignty in 
every independent state. If we recur to the well established and 
universally admitted law of nations, we shall find no sanction to it, 
in that venerable code. The sovereignty of every state is co-exten- 
sive with its dominions, and cannot be abrogated, or curtailed in its 
rights, as to any part, except by conquest. Neutral nations have a 
yjgbt to trade to every port of either belligerent, which is not legal- 



15 

ly blockaded ; and ixi all articles ■which are not contraband of •war 
Such is the absurdity of this pretension, that your committee are 
aware, especially after the able manner in which it has been hereto- 
fore refuted, and exposed, that they would offer an insult to thf 
understanding- of the House, if they enlarged on it, and if any thing- 
could add to tlie high sense of the injustice of the British govern-; 
ment in tlie transaction, it would be the contrast which her conduct 
exiiibits in regard to this trade, and in regard to a similar trade by 
neutrals with her own colonies. It is known to the world, that G 
Biitain regulates her own trade, in war and in peace, at home and 
in her colonies, as she finds for her interest — that in war she relax- 
es the restraints of her colonial system in favour of the colonies,, 
and that it never was suggested that she had not a right to do it j 
or that a neutral in taking advantage of the relaxation violated a 
belligerent right of her enemy. But with G. Britain every (/lingh 
lawful. It is only in a trade with her enemies that the U. States 
■CLin do wrong. With them all trade is unlawful. 

In the year 1793 an attack was made by the British government 
on the same branch of our neutral trade, which had nearly involved 
the two countries in war. That difference however was amicably 
accommodated. The pretension was withdrawn, and reparatioa 
made to the United States for the losses which they had suffered 
by it. It was fair to infer from that arrangement that the com- 
merce was deemed by the British government lawful, and that it 
would not be again disturbed. 

Had the Briiish government been resolved to contest this trade 
with neutrals, it was due to the character of the British nation that 
the decision should be made known to the government of the Uni- 
ted Stales. The existence of a negociation which had been invited 
by our government, for the purpose of preventing differences by 
an amicable arrangement of their respective pretensions, gave a 
strong claim to the notification, while it afforded the fairest oppor- 
tunity for it. But a very different policy animated the then Cabi- 
net of England. The liberal confidence and friendly overtures of 
the United States were taken advantage of to ensnare them. Steady 
to its purpose and inflexibly hostile to this country, the British gov- 
ernment calmly looked forward to the moment, when it might give 
the most deadly wound to our interests. A trade, just in itself, 
which was secured by so nmny strong and sacred pledges, was con- 
sidered safe. Our citizens with their usual industry and enterprize 
had embarked in it a vast proportion of their shipping, and of their 
capital, which were at sea, under no other protection than the law 
of nations, and tke confidence wldch they reposed in the justice 
and friendship of the Briiish nation. At this period the unexpect- 
ed blow was given. Many of our vessels were seized, carried into 
port and condemned by a tribunal, which, while it professes to re- 
spect the law of nations, obeys the mandates of its own govern- 
ment. Hundreds of other vessels were driven from the ocean, and 
the trade itself in a great measure suppressed. The effect pro- 
duced by this attack on the lawful commerce of the United State-i 
T/as such as might have been expected from a -sirtuous. indepen- 



16 

«lent and highly injured people. But one sentiment pervaded the 
whole American nation. No local interests were regarded ; n© 
sordid motives felt. Without looking to the parts which suffered 
inost, the invasion of our rights was considered a common cause, 
and from one extremity of our Union to the other, was heard the 
voice of a united people, calling on their government to avenge 
their wrongs, and vindicate the rights and honour of the country. 

From this period the British government has gone on in a con- 
tinued encroachment on the rights and interests of the United 
States, disregarding in its course, in many instances, obligations 
which have heretofore been held sacred by civilized nations. 

In May, 1806, the whole coast of the continent from the Elbe to. 
Brest inclusive, was declared to be in a stale of blockade. By this 
act, tlie well-established principles of the law of nations, principles 
".vhich have served for ages as guides, and fixed the boundary be- 
tween the rights of belligerents and neutrals, were violated : By the 
law of nations, as recognized by Great Britain herself, no blockade 
is lawful, unless it be sustained by the application of an adequate 
force, and that an adequate force was applied to this blockade, iu 
its full extent, ought not to be pretended. Whether Great Britain 
was able to maintain, legally, so extensive a blockade, considering 
the war in which she is engaged, requiring such extensive naval 
operations, is a question which it is not necessary at this time to 
examine. It is sufficient to be known, that such force was not ap- 
plied, and this is evident from the terms of the blockade itself, by 
which, comparatively, an inconsiderable portion of the coast only 
was declared to be in a state of strict and rigorous blockade. The 
objection to the measure is not diminished by that circumstance. 
If the force v/as not applied, the blockade was unlawful f\om what- 
ever cause the failure might proceed. The belligerent who insti- 
tutes the blockade cannot absolve itself from the obligation to ap- 
ply the force under any pretext whatever. For a belligerent to 
relax a blockade, which it could not maintain, it would be a refine- 
ment in injustice, not less insulting to the understanding than re- 
pugnant to the law of nations. To claim merit for the mitigation 
of an evil, which the party either had not the power or found it 
inconvenient to inflict, would be a new mode of encroaching on 
neutral rights. Your committee think it just to remark that this 
act of the British government does not appear to have been udopted 
in the sense in which it has been since construed. On consider- 
ation of all the circumstances attending the measure, and particu- 
larly the character of the distinguished statesman who announced 
:t, we are persuaded tliat it was conceived in a spirit of conciliation, 
and intended to lead to an accommodation of all diiFerences be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain. His death disappoint- 
ed that hope, and the act has since become subservient to other 
purposes. It has been made by his successors, a pretext for that 
vast system of usurpation, which has so long oppressed and har-; 
assed our commerce. 

The next act of the British government which claims our at- 
tention, is the order of council of January 7, 1807, by which neu- 



( 



17 

tral powers are prohibited trading from one port to another ot 
France or her allies, or any other country, with which Great Bri- 
tain might not freely trade. By this order the pretension of Eng- 
land, heretofore claimed by every other power, to prohibit neutrals 
disposing of parts of their cargoes at different ports of the same 
enemy, is revived, and with vast accumulation of injury. Every 
enemy, however great the number, or distant from each other, is 
considered one, and the like trade, even with powers at peace with 
England, who from motives of policy had excluded or restrained 
her commerce, was also prohibited. In this act the British gov- 
ernment evidently disclaimed all regard for neutral rights. Aware 
that the measures authorised by it could find no pretext in any 
belligerent right, none was urged. To prohibit the sale of our 
produce, consisting of innocent articles, at any port of a belligerent, 
not blockaded, to consider every belligerent as one, and subject 
neutrals to the same restraints with all, as if there was but one, 
were bold encroachments. But to restrain or in any manner in- 
terfere with our commerce with neutral nations with whom Great 
Britain was at peace, and against whom she had no justifiable cause 
of war, for the sole reason, that they restrained or excluded from 
their ports her commerce, was utterly incompatible with the paci- 
fic relations subsisting between the two countries. 

We proceed to bring into view the British Order in Council of 
November 11 th, 1807, which superceded every other order, and 
consummated that system of hostility on the commerce of the 
United States, which has been since so steadily pursued. By this 
order all France and her allies and every other country at war 
•with Great Britain, or with which she was not at war, from which 
the British flag was excluded, and all the colonies of her enemies, 
were subjected to the same restrictions as if they were actually 
blockaded in the most strict and rigorous manner, and all trade in 
articles the produce and manufacture of the said countries and col- 
onies, and the vessels engaged in it, were subjected to capture and 
condemnation as lawful prize. ^To this order certain exceptions 
were made which we forbear to notice, because they were not 
adopted from a regard to neutral rights, but were dictated by poli- 
cy to promote the commerce of England, and so far as they re- 
lated to neutral powers, were said to emanate from the clemency 
of the British government. 

It would be superfluous in your con^mittee to state, that by this 
order the British government declared direct and positive Avar a- 
gainst the United States. The dominion of the ocean was com- 
pletely usurped by it, all commerce forbidden, and every flag driven 
from it or subjected to capture and condemnation, which did not 
subserve the policy of the British government, by paying it a trib- 
ute and sailing under its sanction. From this period the United 
States have incurred the heaviest losses and most mortifying hu- 
miliations. They have borne the calamities of war without retort- 
ing them on its authors. 

So far your committee has presented to the view of the House 
the aggressions which hav.e been committed under the authority 



18 

of the British government on the commerce of the United States. 
— We will now proceed to other wrongs which have been still 
more severely felt. Amonfj these is the impressment of our sea- 
men, a practice which has been unceasingly maintained by Great 
Britain in the wars to which she has been a party since our revoki- 
tion. Vour com nittee cannot convey in adequate terms the deep 
sense which they entertain of the injustice and oppres=iion of this 
proceedinsr. Under the pretext of impressing British seamen, 
our fellow citizens are seized in British ports, on the high seas, and 
in every other quarter to which the British power extends, are 
taken on board British tnen of war, and compelled to serve there as 
B-itish subjects. In this mode our citizens are wantonly snatched 
from their country and their fmiilies, deprived of their liberty and 
doomed to an ignominious and slavish bondage, compelled to fight 
the buttles of a foreign country, and often to perish in them. — Our 
flag has given them in protection ; it has been unceasingly viola- 
ted, and our vessels exposed to danger by the loss of the men taken 
from them. 

Your committee need not remark that while the practice is 
continued, it is impossible for the United States to consider lliem- 
selves an independent nation — Every new case is a new proof of 
their degradation Its continuance is the more unjustiSable, be- 
cause the United States have repeatedly proposed to the British 
Government, an arrangement vvnich would secure to it the con- 
troul of its own people, ^n exemption of the citizens of the Uni- 
ted S'ates from this degradin'2; oppression, and their flag from vio- 
lation, is all that they have sought. 

This lawless waste of our trade and equally unlawful impress- 
ment of our seamen, have been much aggravated by the insults and 
indignities attending them. Under the pretext of blockading the 
harbors of France and her allies, British squadrons have been sta- 
tioned on our own coast, to watch and annoy our own trade. To 
g^ive effect to the blockade of Europe;iu ports, the ports and har- 
bors of the United Slates have been blockaded. In executing these 
orders of tiie British government, or in obeying the spirit which 
was known to animite it, the commanders of these squadrons have 
encroached on our jurisdiction, seized our vessels, and carried into 
effect impressments within our limits, and done other acts of great 
injustice, violence, and oppression. The U. States have seen, 
with mingled indignation and surprise, that these acts, instead of 
procuring to the perpetrators the punishment due to unauthorized 
crimes, have not failed to recommend them to the favour of their 
government. 

Whether the British government has contributed by active 
measures to excite against us the hostility of the savage tribes on 
our frontiers, your committee are not disposed to occupy much 
time in investigating. Certain indications of general notoriety 
may supply tlie place of authentic documents ; though these have 
wot been wanting to establish the fact in some instances. It is 
known that symptoms of British hostility towards the U. States 



19 

have never failed to produce corresponding syraptonas among: 
those tribes. 

It is also Well known that on all such occasions, abundant sup- 
plies of the ordinary munitions cf war have bten aficidtd by the 
agents of British conimercial companies, and even fixm British 
garrisons, wherewith they wtve enabled to commence tiuU syMem 
of savage warfare on our frontiers, which has been at all times in- 
discriminate in its efFectj on all ages, sexes, and conditions, and so 
revolting to humanity. 

Your committee would be much gratified if they coukl close here 
the detail of British wrongs ; but it is their duly to recite another 
act of still greater malignity, than any of those which have btun al- 
ready brought to your view. The atttmpt to dismember our 
Union and overthrovv our excellent constitution, by a secret mis- 
sion, the object of which was to foment discontents and excite in- 
surrection against the constituted authorities and laws of the na- 
tion, as lately disclosed by the agent employed in it, affoids fuli 
proof that there is no bound to the hostility of the British govern- 
ment towards the United States — no act, however unjustifiable, 
which it would not commit to accomplish their ruin. This at- 
tempt excites the greater hoiror from the consideration that it was 
made while the U. States and G, Britain were at peace, and an 
amicable negociation was depending detween them for the accom- 
modation of their differences through public ministers regularly 
authorised for the purpose. 

The U. States have beheld, with unexampled foibearance, this 
continued series of hostile encroachments on their lights and in- 
terests, in the hope, that, yielding to the force of friendly remon- 
strances, often I'epeated, the Biitish government might adopt a 
more just policy towards them ; but that hope no longer exists. 
They have also weighed impartially the reasons which have been 
urged by the British government in vindication of these encroach- 
ments, and found in them neither justification or apology. 

The British government has alleged in vindication of the or- 
ders in council that they were resorted to as a retaliation on France 
for similar aggressions committed by her on our neutral trade 
with the British dominions. But how has this plea been support- 
ed ? The dates of Biitish and French aggressions are well 
known to the world. Their origin and progress have been mark- 
ed with too wide and destructive a waste of the property of cur fel- 
low citizens, to have been forgotten. The decree of Berlin of 
Nov. 21st, 1806, was the first aggression of France in the present 
war. Eighteen months had then elapsed, after tlfe attack made by 
Great Biitain on our neutral trade, with the colonies cf France and 
her allies, and six months from the date of the proclamation of 
May, 1806. Even on the 7th January, 1807, the date of the first 
British orderin council, so short a term had elapsed after the Ber- 
lin decree, that it was hardly possible that the intelligence of it 
should have reached the United States. A retaliation which is to 
produce its effect, by operating on a neutral power, ought not to 
l)e resorted te, tUl the neutral had justified it by a culpable acquies- 



^0 

cence in the unlawful act of the other belligerent. It ought to be 
delayed until after sufficient time had been allowed to the neutral 
to remonstrate against the measure complained of, to receive an 
answer, and to act on it, which had not been done in the present 
instance ; and when the order of November 1 1th was issued, it is 
well known that a minister of France had declared to the minister 
plenipotentiary of the U. States at Paris, that it was not intended 
that the decree of Berlin should apply to the United States. It is 
equally well known, that no American vessel had then been con- 
demned under it, or seizure been made, with which the British 
government was acquainted. The facts prove incontestibly, that 
the measures of France, however unjustifiable in themselves, were 
nothing more than a pretext for those of England. And of the 
insufficiency of that pretext, ample proof has already been affiarded 
by the British government itself, and in the most impressive 
form. Although it was declared that the orders in council were 
retaliatory orv France for her decrees, it was also declared, and in 
the orders themselves, that owing to the superiority of the British 
navy, by which the fleets of France and her allies were confined 
within their own ports, the French decrees were considered only as 
empty threats. 

It is no justification of the wrongs of one power, that the like 
were committed by another ; nor ought the fact, if true, to have 
been urged by either, as it could affijrd no proofofits love of justice, 
of its magnanimity, or even of its courage. It is more worthy the 
government of a great nation, to relieve than to assail the injured. 
Nor can a repetition of the wrongs by another power repair the vio- 
lated rights, or wounded honor, of the injured party. An utter 
inability alone to resist, would justify a quiet surrender of our rights, 
and degrading submission to the will of others. To that condition 
the U. S. are not reduced, nor do they fear it. That they ever con- 
sented to discuss with either power the misconduct of the other, is 
a proof of their love of peace, of their moderation, and of the hope 
which they still indulged that friendly appeals to just and generous 
sentiments would not be made to them in vain. But the motive 
was mistaken, if their forbearance was imputed, either to the want 
of a just sensibility to their wrongs, or of a determination, if suitable 
redress was not obtained, to resent them. The time has now ar- 
rived when this system of reasoning must cease. It would be in- 
sulting to repeat it. It would be degrading to hear it. The U, 
States must act as an independent nation, and assert their rights 
and avenge their wrongs, according to their own estimate of them, 
with the party who commits them, holding it responsible for its 
own misdeeds unmitigated by those of another. 

For the difference made between Great Britain and France by 
the application of the non-importation act against England only, 
the motive has been already too often explained, and is too weU, 
known to require further illustration. In the commercial restric- 
tions to which the United States resorted as an evidence of their 
sensibility, and a mild retaliation of their wrongs, they invariably 
placed both powers on the same footing, holding out to each in 



21 

respect to itself, the same accommodation, in case i't accepted Vde 
condition offered, and in respect to the other, the same restraint if 
it refused. Had the British government confirmed the arrange- 
ment, which was entered into with the British minister in 1809, 
and France maintained her decrees, wiih France would the United 
States have had to resist, with the firmness belonging to their 
character, the continued violation of their rights. The committee 
do not hesiuteito declare that France has greatly injured the Uni- 
ted States, and that satisfactory reparation has not yet been made 
for many of those injuries. But, that is a concern which the Uni- 
ted States will look to and settle for themselves. The high char- 
acter of the American people, is a sufficient pledge to the world, 
that they will not fail to settle it, on conditions which they have 
a right to claim. 

More recently, the true policy of the Btitish government to- 
wards the United States has been completely unfolded. It has 
been publickly declared by those in power, that the orders in coun- 
cil should not be repealed, until the French government had re- 
"voked all its internal restraints on the British commerce, and that 
the trade of the United States, with France and her allies, should 
be prohibited until Great Britain was also allowed to trade with them. 
By this declaration, it appears, that to satisfy the pretensions of 
the British government, the United States must join G. Britain in 
the war with France, and prosecute the war, until France should 
be subdued, for without her subjugation, it were in vain to presume 
on such a concession. The hostility of the British government to 
these States has been still further disclosed. It has been made 
manifest that the United States are considered by it as the com- 
mercial rival of Great Britain, and thj&t their prosperity and growth 
are incompatible with her welfare. When all these circum- 
stances are taken into consideration, it is impossible for your com- 
mittee to doubt the motives which have governed the British Min- 
istry in all its measures towards the United States since the year 
1805. Equally is it impossible to doubt, longer, the course which 
the United States ought to pursue towards Great Britain. 

From this view of the multiplied wrongs of the British government 
since the commencement of the present war, is must be evident to 
the impartial vjoTld, that the contest Which is novv forced on the 
United States, is radically a contest for their sovereignty and inde- 
pendence. Your committee will not enlarge on any of the injuries, 
however great, which hate had a transitory effect. They wish to 
call the attention of the House to those of a permanent nature only, 
which intrench so deeply on our most important rights, and wound 
so extensively and vitally our best interests, as could not fail to de- 
prive the U. States of the principal advantages of their revoluiiojiji 
if submitted to. fThe control of our commerce by G. Britain, in 
regulating at pleasure, and expelling it almost from the ocean ; 
tlie oppressive manner in which these regulations have been carri- 
pA into effect, by seizing and confiscating sucii of our vessels, with 
their cargoes, as were said to have violated her edicts, often wit-htiuC 



/ m 

previous warning of iheir danger ; the imprtssment of our ciiijenss 
from oil board our oAvn vessels, on the high seas, and elsewhere, 
and i.olding them in bondage until it suited the convenience of their 
cpprcb>>ors to deliver them up, are encroachments of that high and 
d.ir.gerous tendency which could not fail to produce that pernicious 
ttfect, nor would those be the only consequences that would result 
fiom it._^/Ttie British government might, for a while-, be satisfied 
with the ascendancy thus gained over us, but its (yetensiors would 
soon iiitrease. The proof, which so complete alid disgraceful a 
submission to its authority, would afford of our degeneracy, could 
not fail to inspire confidence that there was no limit to which its 
usurpations and our degradation might not be carried. 

Your committee, believing that the freeborn sons of America are 
woi tiiy to enjoy the liberty which their fathers purchased at the 
price of so much blood and treasure, and seeing, in the measures 
adopted by G. Britain, a course commenced and persisted in, which 
miy;ht lead to a loss of national character and independence, feel no 
hesitation in advising resistance by force, in which the Americans 
of the present day \\\\\ prove to the enemy and to the world, that we 
have not only inherited tiiat liberty which our fathers gave us, but 
also the Will and powek to maintaifl it. Relying on the patriotism 
of the nation, and confidently trusting that the Lord of Hosts will 
go with us to battle in a righteous cause, and crown our efforts with 
success — your committee recommend an immediate appeal to 

AUMS. 



AN ACT, 

Declaring TFar between the United Kingdom of Great 
Bj'itain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof^ and 
the United States of America and their Territories. 

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the U. States of America in Congress assem- 
bled, That WAR be and the same is hereby declared to 
exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Irehind, and the dependencies thereof, and the United 
States of America, and their territories ; and that the 
President of the United States be, and he is hereby 
authorised to use the whole land and naval forces of the 
United States to carry the same into effect, and to issue 
to private armed vessels of (he U. States commissions 
or letters of nwrque and general reprisal, in such form 
as he shall think proper, and under the seal of the U. 



23 



States, against the vessels, goods, i\nd effecis ot iJu 
f^oveniment of the same United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland, and of the subjects thereof. 

H. CLAY, 
Speaker of the House of Represent at'wes. 

WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, 

President of the Senate pro tempore. 

June 18, 1812. — Approved, 

JAMES MADISON. 



BY THE PRESIDENT 

OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

A Proclamation. 

WHEREAS the- Congress of the United States, by 
virtue of the constituted Authority vested in ihem, 
have declared by their act, bearing date the eighteenth 
day of the present month, that War exists between the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the 
dependencies thereof, and the United States of x\merica 
and their territories; now therefore I, JAMES MADI- 
SON, President of the United States of America, do 
hereby proclaim the same to all whom it may concern : 
and I do specially enjoin on all persons holding ofl^iccs, 
civil or military, under the authority of the United Stales, 
that they be vigilant and zealous, in discharging the du- 
ties respectively incident thereto : And I do moreover 
exhort all the good people of the United States, as they 
love their country ; as they value the precious heritage 
derived from the virtue and valor of their fathers ; as they 
feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last re- 
sort of injured nations ; and as they consult the best 
means, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of 
abridging its calamities ; that they exert themselves in 
preserving order, in promoting concord, in maintain- 
ing the authority and the efficacy of the laws,and in sup- 
porting and invigorating all the measures which may 



26 

ness of the highwayman, she has, at hist, stripped the 
mask from violence, and vindicates her aggressions and 

impressments on the only plea of tyrants that of 

whim and convenience. The same plea extends to the 
weltering victim of savage barbarity on our frontiers. 

It was not sufficient that we were remote from Eu- 
ropean politics, and courted peace under every sacri- 
fice ; acquiesced in minor injuries ; remonstrated 
against those of a deeper dye ; forebore, until forbear- 
ance became pusillanimity ; and finally retired from 
the scene of controversy with the delusive hope, that a 
spirit of moderation might succeed that of violence and 
rapine. We were hunted on the ocean ; our property 
was seised upon by the convulsive grasp^of our now 
open and acknowledged enemy, and our citizens forced 
into a cruel and ignominious vassalage. — And when we 
retired, we were pursued to the threshold of our territo- 
ry ; outrages of an enormous cast perpetrated in our 
bays and harbors ; the tomahawk of the savage uplift- 
ed against the parent, the wife, the infarct, on our fron- 
tiers ; and spies and incendiaries sent into the bosom of 
our country to plot with the desperate and ambitious the 
dismemberment of our government, and involve us in 
all the horrors of a civil war. 

We have sought in vain for the motives of this horrible 
warflire. WhatBritish subject has ever been personally in- 
jured by America ? What British property has ever been 
confiscated or condemned ? What insult has ever been 
offered to the ensigns of national authority ? In a time 
of profound peace, when we were supplying their citizene 
with the products of our soil, and replenishing their cof- 
fers by a lucrative commerce ; with no disputes con- 
cerning territory ; with no armies or navies to excite 
their national jealousy; we have experienced injuries 
and outrages, at which the humanity of modern warfare 
revolts. 

The Constituted Authorities of the United States, in 
Congress assembled, submitting the justice of their 
cause to the God of Battles,have at length declared WAR 
against this implacable foe : — A W ar for the protection 
of eomnierce \—*A War yor the Liberties of our Citi- 



27 

zcns : — j4 War^/o/* our National Sovereigniy and Inde- 
peiidence : — 4 War for our Republican Form of Gov- 
ernment, against the machinations of despotism. 

The Senate affect not to disguise Irom their Constitu- 
ents, that the times are times of peril. The ENEMIES 
of REPUBLICS are on the alert. The present is 
deemed the favorable time for the dismemberment of 
the Union, that favorite project of the British Govern- 
ment, which has been attempted by their authorized 
agent ; and we have alarming proofs is countenanced 
and cherished by citizens of this government. YES : 
•we say with assurance^ that a deep and deadly design is 
formed against our happy l/jiion : We say it from con- 
viction forced on our minds ; from declarations from 
responsible sources ; from intrigues that have existed 
between the Enemies of Republics and an authorized 
British spy ; and from a settled determination in indi- 
viduals to oppose the Government in the prosecution of 
the war now forced on us. 

The Senate will not assert that there exists a party, 
(in the two grand divisions in which parties are gene- 
' rally divided in the United States, and on which the 
Senate are reluctantly compelled to animadvert,) which 
gives countenance to such nefarious projects. The 
great body of the people are Americans. It is the Ene- 
mies of Republics, of whom we speak. Monarchists in 
principle and by profession ; who disguise not their ch- 
mity to our happy Government, and do not conceal tlieir 
intention to embrace the opportunity of popular disaf- 
fection and commotion, to attempt a Revolution- 
Deeply impressed with the solemnity of the crisis, and 
with the dangers attendant on our beloved country, 
as well from our declared enemy as our intestine foes, 
the Senate have contemplated the duties, which, as 
members of the social compact, each individual owes to 
his country, and they declare them to be a firm support 
of the Government of their choice. The rightful au- 
thority has decreed. Opposition must cease : He that 
is not for his country, is against it. The precedents on 
record will serve for your guide. When engaged with 
this same encianv. our fathers obeved the caJIs of their 



2i^ 

country, Lxpressed through the authority of their 
edicts. In imitation of their example, let the laws every 
where be obeyed \vith the most prompt alacrity ; let the 
Constituted Authorities be aided by the patriotic efforts 
of individuals ; — let the Friends of the Qovernment rally, 
under Committees of Public Safety, in each Town, Dis- 
trict, and Plantation ; let a common center be formed by 
a Committee in each County, that seasonable information 
may be given of every movement of the enemy. Let 
our 3^oung men, who compose the Militia, be ready to 
march at a moment's warning to any part of our shores 
in defence of our coast. — These precautions are ren- 
dered necessary against our external foe, and the -inter- 
nal machinations she may again attempt. These meas- 
ures are sanctified by the example of our fathers in our 
revolutionary struggle. And relying on the patriotism 
of the whole People, let us commit our cause to the 
God of Battles, and implore his aid and success in the 
preservation of our dearest rights and privileges. 

Ill SenatCy June 26, 1812^ 

Head and accepted. 

SAMUEIi DANA. President. 



46 












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